MTGO Campaign

[Thomas David Baker]

I have a half-formed idea.

Help me turn into into a complete idea.

It goes something like this.

- You get 45 random MTGO cards that cost 0.10 or less and make a deck. (3 quid buy-in, basically.)
- Every match you win you get a bonus card.
- At the end of every week where you played 2 or more matches you get 15 more cards plus the bonus cards you are owed. (Another 20-90p cost.)
- Weekly, Monthly and All-Time charts will be shown on DT.

Some other things:

- We can generate the cards from the list of in stock cards on mtgotraders.com which ensures that the decks can actually be assembled and allows us to set a max price.
- Starting number of cards should be low but not enough to put people off playing before it even gets going. Perhaps 90 (like Sealed) or more is better.
- How low can we set the card value and still have the game be fun?
- How many cards should you get each week?
- How high can we set the reward for winning matches without putting the best deck into an upward spiral that makes it uncatchable?
- What about instead of giving out random cards we "reveal" the cards for the week and you can bid for them. This reduces randomness and adds to the skill element?
- Should there be some way of trading amongst players?
- Should there be some way of liquidating useless cards (2:1? 5:1?) to turn them into more random cards for your deck?
- Should there be more structure to the cards you get. Say 1 x 0.50, 3 x 0.25, 11 x 0.10 or something like that?

What do you think? Would you play?

[Daniel Royde]

I'd be VER interested, BUT it would have to be quite easy/ quick to do. I don't think any of this is that that complicated, but it sounds as though it could be quite time consuming. What chance is there of how much of it being automated to what degree? (if you see what I mean).

I used to play leagues a few years ago, and have been sad that they haven't come back.
D

[Max Botten]

Definitely sounds interesting, trading is probably a bad idea, or at least need to be limited, simply because if two players have some profitable trade to make, they now both have an advantage compared to the rest.

[Daniel Royde]

Oh yeah, please no trading because it's rubbish and not fun!

[Thomas David Baker]

Maximum amount of automation, for sure. Although you're probably going to have to go buy your cards and collect them off the mtgo traders man each week. But it's a pretty painless process.

Max makes a good point about the trading so we won't have that.

I wonder about a couple of things:

- Would it be fun to do a kind of "history of magic" type thing where you get a booster from each set in chronological order? Or are early sets so awful that this would not be fun?

- How did leagues work when they were operational, and was that a good model?

[Thomas David Baker]

So, some vague consensus that it would be good if this worked a bit like leagues. Start with 90 cards. Gain 15 cards a week, but only if you play at least 2 matches.

Some options for cards structure:

(a) 15 cards that cost X or less (Example: 0.10)
(b) 10 x X-cost cards, 3 x Y-cost cards, 1 x Z-cost card (Example: 0.02, 0.10, 0.50)
(c) Actual boosters (this ups the cost considerably from the kind of prices we are talking about to 15 GBP buy in and ~3 GBP weekly).

(i) Totally random from within in-stock cards on mtgotraders.com in the price range.
(ii) Start with 1 booster from each of Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey, Torment, Judgment then each week work through each set of Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Time Spiral, Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, Shards of Alara and Zendikar blocks (20 weeks, if we make it that far, plus Worldwake).

Example with (aii):

Initial cards:

[Invasion] Angel of Mercy Rooting Kavu Tidal Visionary Kavu Runner Seer's Vision Turf Wound Mountain Forest Verduran Emissary Quirion Elves Tainted Well Overload Samite Ministration Dredge Bog Initiate	[Planeshift] Malicious Advice Primal Growth Maggot Carrier Heroic Defiance Steel Leaf Paladin Lava Zombie Stratadon Kavu Recluse Slingshot Goblin Terminal Moraine Gainsay Caldera Kavu Death Bomb Thornscape Familiar Stone Kavu	[Apocalypse] Minotaur Illusionist Strength of Night Ana Disciple Phyrexian Gargantua Temporal Spring Haunted Angel Kavu Glider Ceta Disciple Raka Sanctuary Penumbra Bobcat Shimmering Mirage Dwarven Landslide Jungle Barrier Tundra Kavu Captain's Maneuver
[Odyssey] Treetop Sentinel Syncopate Fledgling Imp Sylvan Might Spark Mage Nantuko Elder Escape Artist Caustic Tar Decompose Deluge Morbid Hunger Scorching Missile Dusk Imp Dwarven Strike Force Patriarch's Desire	[Torment] Hypochondria Temporary Insanity Restless Dreams Cabal Torturer Pardic Arsonist Pardic Collaborator Pardic Lancer Cleansing Meditation Carrion Wurm Dwell on the Past Frantic Purification Flash of Defiance Balshan Collaborator Teroh's Faithful Hydromorph Guardian	[Judgment] Barbarian Bully Riftstone Portal Wormfang Drake Cabal Trainee Firecat Blitz Vigilant Sentry Canopy Claws Wormfang Turtle Planar Chaos Keep Watch Funeral Pyre Ironshell Beetle Defy Gravity Tunneler Wurm Trained Pronghorn

Maximizing on removal and evasion and 4/4s that also draw 2 cards gives us this initial deck.

The next week we visit Mirrodin and get:

Nim Shrieker
Talisman of Progress
Neurok Spy
Rust Elemental
Granite Shard
Barter in Blood
Bottle Gnomes
Raise the Alarm
Vorrac Battlehorns
Soul Nova
Skyhunter Cub
Domineer
Steel Wall
Rustmouth Ogre
Island

[Thomas David Baker]

We like the look of Neurok Spy, Barter in Blood, Granite Shard, maybe Rustmouth Ogre. Or perhaps we want to try and cut R and get to two colors for consistency.

The following week from Darksteel we get:

Emissary of Despair
Loxodon Mystic
Echoing Ruin
Kraken's Eye
Neurok Transmuter
Tangle Spider
Nourish
Drooling Ogre
Hallow
Stir the Pride
Demon's Horn
Darksteel Ingot
Wirefly Hive
Test of Faith
Screams from Within

Which is not so impressive. And makes us go back and look at W and G as possibly playable colors.

And so on with Fifth Dawn, Kamigawa, Ravnica, etc.

What do you think? Sound good?

[stevie_b]

Mr baker is it true u r missing the games club?

Thomas David Baker said:

We like the look of Neurok Spy, Barter in Blood, Granite Shard, maybe Rustmouth Ogre. Or perhaps we want to try and cut R and get to two colors for consistency.

The following week from Darksteel we get:

Emissary of Despair
Loxodon Mystic
Echoing Ruin
Kraken's Eye
Neurok Transmuter
Tangle Spider
Nourish
Drooling Ogre
Hallow
Stir the Pride
Demon's Horn
Darksteel Ingot
Wirefly Hive
Test of Faith
Screams from Within

Which is not so impressive. And makes us go back and look at W and G as possibly playable colors.

And so on with Fifth Dawn, Kamigawa, Ravnica, etc.

What do you think? Sound good?

[Thomas David Baker]

Nope, as you can see I am quite capable of amusing myself! And in fact even having a conversation with myself :P

Yes Tom, that's right.

Not to derail the point of this thread, though, are you going to join in this thing or are you sworn off all MTGO?

[stevie_b]

(Un)fortunately my plans for 2010 do not include as much magic as 2009 and certainly not downloading mtgo - I'm afraid my involvement will be limited to just standing on the sidelines and throwing out funny and slightly barbed comments.

On another note I'd be interested in doing a real world STD or ext league.

Thomas David Baker said:

Nope, as you can see I am quite capable of amusing myself! And in fact even having a conversation with myself :P

Yes Tom, that's right.

Not to derail the point of this thread, though, are you going to join in this thing or are you sworn off all MTGO?

[Ben Titmarsh]

Whats with the less Magic then Steve?

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Sounds good Tom, but it seems you completely forgot Onslaught block which comes between Odyssey and Mirrodin.

Can't miss out on those Berserk Murlodonts!

[Amidu]

I think I'd prefer if there was a list of cards that had a rank from 1-10, you get a number of points and you build a deck, and more points every week